


How chess got invented

by Lurker2



Series: Doctor Who ideas [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:49:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26422177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lurker2/pseuds/Lurker2
Summary: I had great fun imagining the invention of chess as a subtle battle of insults and with between Rassilon and the Doctor's great-great-grandfather! At first it was going to be the good Doctor himself, but then I realized that wouldn't fit, for various reasons (not the least of which would be that he'd mention it during the chessgame were he revealed Time-lords invented chess). I like checkers too, though. As for why the Doctor didn't say one of his ancestors did it, well, I imagine he'd keep it hidden, 'specially as Rassilon grew in power.
Series: Doctor Who ideas [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1920553





	How chess got invented

Once upon a Time, before the TARDISes were invented, Time-Lords were merely people who could regenerate and had too much time on their hands. After the fun of trying out various combinations of traits died out, they gathered in a great hall. It was - though they didn't know it at the time- the first house of their beautiful city.  
A man with red hair and blueyellow eyes stood up. He said a word that covered all possible genders in the room (sadly untranslatable), and began. This is a rough translation of what he said.

'We're bored. We're all bored. We've studied our world, and now even the Vortex holds no secrets for us. And winter is coming... a twentyfouryearlong night is looming on the horizon, at the edge of our minds. We've transcended all known boundaries, we've every bit of data right here' -he taps his head- 'yet we haven't solved the problem of BOREDOM!'

Wood softly trembled at his shouting, but the people sat in silence, fascinated by this pacing little man, watching like hawks...or vultures. 

'So, I propose a solution to that,' the man said softly. 'The person who solves our boredom for us, gets...' he paused to think. 'A chance to look into the Vortex,' he said at last.

The people didn't gasp, but some sat straighter up -barely noticeable to a human-, and others got a glint in their eyes. And a couple stood up and left, while others sat there and wracked their minds in silence. The few who left were barely on their radar; they were seen as slow, or flighty, or otherwise not a threat. One went to the fields and looked for stones, one looked contemplative at the wooden planks and the last one went into the wood with nothing but a knife, a writing/drawing utensil, and a knife. Coincidentally, the first would invent golf and bowling, and the second one would start the build of TARDISes, made with telepathic wood, years down the line. The last one (a young boy with black hair and blue eyes), wandered around for a bit, looking at the silver and golden leaves until he saw a dead three with a certain branch. It looked somewhat like Rassilion. And then he considered Rassilion, sitting there commanding everyone and -he thought- demanding protection in the form of others sacrificing themselves for him, and the boy smiled a smile as sharp as a sword. He didn't like Rassilion very much, and he knew Rassilion would recognize the subtle mockery and would forbid it if he could, but if he made it popular first.... his smile grew bigger as he began to carve Rassilion out, and then the other pieces; his wife, the Queen who did most of the work, his Chancelors, the Bishops, two Rooks (made up of the advisors on war and defense who had been rendered obsolete by a lack of war or things to defend themselves again, but had been noted as very rigid and eager for war when that was still a concern in the Spheres), and two Horses, which he gave his own callsign (they had developed those to knew who it was after a regeneration, after a Time-Lord pretended to be Rassilion's current regeneration), for while doing that he was also figuring out how each figure would move. The pawns were faceless, in a clear satire of how Rassilion seemed to look at the world; a few important people and the rest were faceless, and then he devised his masterstoke, and his grin was so wide it split his face in two (a feat most often repeated in his descendants Tenth incarnation). He gave the pawns the ability to turn into Queens once they reached the end of the board. This was not merely a snide reminder that overlooked people could turn out to be important, but also mirrored the promises Rassilion so often made to his lovers and other people; that they might rule at his side someday. He or she would get rid of his wife and take him or her to rule at his side. (It never happened; his wife would die in the Time-war, throwing him into madness).

He kept it quiet, of course, having no desire to look into the Vortex or incur Rassilions wrath openly.   
That evening, he and his best friend met up in a small house.  
'What did you do all day?' the blond boy opposite him asked. He had a crooked nose this time, and a small tattoo of a wolf on his wrist.   
His friend shrugged. 'I invented a new game,' he said, trying to sound mysterious. He wasn't sure if he managed, though. The blond friend merely smiled, showing off his gap-tooth. 'Should've gone to Rassilion then, get a chance to look into the Vortex.'  
Shrugging, the boy with black hair showed his pieces and board. 'Said to drive men mad,' he merely commented as he set the pieces up for both sides and launched into a explanation.   
They played, both fumbling only a little, in silence until 'check and mate.' sounded. 'So what did you do?'   
'I invented a game where you try to get a ball in a hole, from a distance, with a club. And one where you try to bowl over some things, but you only get one throw. And you, what did you invent?'  
'A game played on a table with high sides, where you use a ball that is clearly marked to push other balls (also marked) into holes in the table, with nothing used other then a straight stick.'   
'Cool! What did Rassilion say?'  
'He mocked my idea of course, saying it was too much work just to get a table to not-eat on.'  
'Sounds like him, alright.'   
'Then he showed off his game, of course, calling it Checkers.' He grimaced. 'Wherein they're all faceless except for when, get this, all the others can walk only one box, right? But Kings -he snorted derisively- can move diagonally over the whole board!'  
'Well, at least it makes his opinion of all of us clear,' the blond agreed, laughing softly. 'So in turn, you've made a game where the king is wholly unimportant and its the Queen who does most of the work?'  
'Nonono, it was always like this,' said the other. 'You know how it is.' (much, much later the queen would find another to give her love without Rassilions knowing and from that, in the end, the Time-Lord known as the Doctor would be born to a human and a time-lord with a hidden rebellious streak, but it started here, in this room, with a burning desperate love for his queen that would never come to fruition).

The next day, both taught it to their friends in much the same way, and they decided to hold a tournament between them in a barn nearby. The group -four or five of them- snuck in and set up their boards. Some had used bio-luminescence to make boards where the lines lit up, or the white pieces, or the white boxes. Some had hidden the kings head. Some had made the pieces sonic, giving them a small whirring noise when under threat and a short buzz when taken. One particularly inventive timelord had combined it so there were green and red pieces that made soft clicking noises and responded to commands, and lit up purple when endangered (not brightly thought). He was new to them, and hooded, and his eyes glittered warily at each of them in turn. But he hadn't obscured the kings head, so they let him in.   
He didn't smile at that, and his eyes only turned grimly amused when he won game after game, and of course he refused to tell them his name, until at last they decided to call him 'The King', for they thought him to be Rassilion. That day, the inventor of chess wasn't the only winner in the tournament. That's when he figured it out. It couldn't be Rassilion, for he played reckless and confident, and would've had them arrested or killed twice over. 'My queen,' he said reverently. 'I concede to you. We're equally matched; neither of us would ever win, but you're my queen so I yield to thee.'   
'We're equally matched,' agreed the queen, smiling for the first time. 'But I fail to see why you should lower yourself so. Let's say we're equals. Let's have a ending where neither loses or wins.' And so the queen invented remise, and she came around a lot after that, having assured herself they were not rebels looking to kill her and her husband. And when Rassilion found out, it was too popular to ban already, so he allowed it with the kings and queens head obscured, but he never forgot the slight. 

He still had the last laugh, though, when they brought it to earth and made it a nobleman's game.

**Author's Note:**

> I had great fun imagining the invention of chess as a subtle battle of insults and with between Rassilon and the Doctor's great-great-grandfather! At first it was going to be the good Doctor himself, but then I realized that wouldn't fit, for various reasons (not the least of which would be that he'd mention it during the chessgame were he revealed Time-lords invented chess). I like checkers too, though. As for why the Doctor didn't say one of his ancestors did it, well, I imagine he'd keep it hidden, 'specially as Rassilon grew in power.


End file.
